National 6 (Spotlight Weekly)

Rush To Get Away

Facing a difficult situation back home, there is a rush among Nepalese youths to avail of the opportunity thrown open by the US DV scheme for 2005

By DEWAN RAI

The banners that bear “Try Your Luck”, “E-DV 2005 for Rs.100” or “Are You Thinking About Going to America?” and so on is ubiquitous in every nook and corner of the city. A herd of youth, eager to fulfill their dream of going to America, throng at these centers. These youths have only one dream - to migrate to America for better and secure life.

Ramesh Bhandari who is a lecturer at Nepal Commerce Campus, Minbhawan earns a good sum here in Nepal. He has friends in the US who frequently tell him to fill the Diversity Visa (DV) form to come to America. So, he decided to fill the form this year to try his luck. “I want to go to America for higher education,” says he. He already has completed postgraduate from the Tribhuwan University (TU).

With his dreams in mind he went to Photo Concern P. Ltd. for digital photograph. It cost him Rs.350 for having photographed and copying them in a CD. He arrived at the Beta Power International Pvt. Ltd. to fill the Electronic DV form. Beta Power, a computer center located at Bagbazaar, charged him Rs. 250 for the service delivered. In total he had to spend Rs 600 for his endearing fancy to land in America. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of such centers that have sprouted in the various cities that offer service to the people who want to fill up the DV form, which has to be done electronically and sent through email.

Diversity Visa has become, in these days, the final, the safest and the surest means to enter the US, if they are lucky enough to be selected. The US has become the promised land of the people from around the world not only Nepalis. After 9/11 terrorist attacks American security has been tightened further. Till last year, one could apply for DV with general letters. But this year the application has to be made via e-mail only. Because of this reason the computer centers and cyber cafes are enjoying boom in their business.

The green card is the permission for residence and work in the USA. This visa was first introduced in the 1940s as “Alien Registration Receipt Card”. The first of this credit card sized IDs bore green writing and a greenish photo. Thus, the expression “Green Card” was coined and quickly became common. More than 10 million foreigners are currently living in the USA on the Green Card.

The DV program is based on clause 201 to 204 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) determines the eligible countries and application rules based on a calculation laid down in the law. These rules can change from year to year.

As the saying goes ‘no risk no gain’ all for economic purposes, they are gambling the sum up to thousand rupees. “Every day about fifty person come to fill the DV form,” says Arjun Bhandari, the proprietor of Beta Power. He also claims that the charge is cheaper in comparison to other centers. He has taken another strategy to attract the clients by distributing hand-bills to persons walking by the road throughout the city. “But we have not made any false promise,” he says assertively.

Though any person can send the DV form through internet on their own, many people tend to get professional services from these centers because they do not find comfortable sending it themselves. The website for applying DV is www.dvlottery.state.gov.

The lure grasped so many Nepalese people that about 200,000 people applied for DV Lottery Program 2004. Nepal stood ninth worldwide in the rank of chosen DV candidates and in Asia, Nepal ranked second with 4,259 DV winners after Bangladesh last year.